Second Sudanese Civil War

The Second Sudanese Civil War (5 June 1983-9 January 2005) was fought between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). In 1983, the Sudanese government of Gaafar Nimeiry decided to implement sharia law across the country, both in the Muslim north and the Christian and animist south. This act ended the religious and cultural autonomy granted to southern Sudanese people in 1972 at the end of the First Sudanese Civil War, and it led to the formation of the SPLA. The war spread from South Sudan to the Nuba mountains and the Blue Nile, and it lasted for 22 years, with Uganda, Ethiopia, and Eritrea intervening militarily on the side of the SPLA, and Iran providing non-combat aid to the Sudanese government. In 2005, the two sides agreed to a peace agreement, and South Sudan became an independent country after a 2011 referendum.